120 
As soon as the gloom began to disperse, and the violence of the shock seemed pretty much abated, 
the first object I perceived in the room was a woman sitting on the floor, with an infant m her arms, 
all covered with dust, pale and trembling; I asked her how she got hither: but her consternat.on was 
so o-reat, that she could give me no account of her escape; I suppose, that when the tremor first began, 
sbfran out of her own house, and finding herself in such imminent danger from the falling of stones, 
retired into the door of mine, -which was almost contiguous to her’s, for shelter, and when the shock 
increased, which filled the door with dust and rubbish, ran up stairs m to my apartment, which was 
then open- be it as it might, this was no time for curiosity. I remember the poor creature asked me, 
in the utmost agony, if I did not think that the world was at an end; at the same time she complained 
of bein-T choked, and begged for God’s sake I would procure her a little drink; upon this I went to a 
closet where I kept a large jar with water (which you know is sometimes a pretty scarce commodity 
in Lisbon), but finding it broken in pieces, I told her she must not now think of quenching her thiist, 
but saving her life, as the house was just falling on our heads, and if a second shock came, would cer¬ 
tainly bury us both; I bade her take hold of my arm, and that I would endeavour to bring her into 
some place of security. 
I shall always look upon it as a particular providence, that I happened on this occasion to be 
undressed; for had I dressed myself, as I proposed, when I got out of bed, in order to breakfast with 
a friend, I should, in all probability, have run into the street at the beginning of the shock, as the rest 
of the people in the house did, and consequently have had my brains dashed out, as every one of them 
had; however, the imminent danger I was in did not hinder me from considering that my present dress, 
only a gown and slippers, would render my getting over the ruins almost impracticable: I had, there¬ 
fore, still presence of mind enough left to put on a pair of shoes and a coat, the first that came in my 
way, which was every thing I saved, and in this dress I hurried down stairs, the woman with me, 
holding by my arm, and made directly to that end of the street which opens to the Tagus, but finding 
the passage this way entirely blocked up with the fallen houses to the height of their second stories, I 
turned back to the other end which led into the main street (the common thoroughfare to the palace), 
and having helped the woman over a vast heap of ruins, with no small hazard to my own life, just as 
we were going into the street, as there was one part I could not well climb over without the assistance 
of my hands, as v- ell as my feet, I desired her to let go her hold, which she did, remaining two or 
three feet behind me, at which time there fell a vast stone from a tottering wall, and crushed both her 
and the child in pieces: so dismal a spectacle at any other time would have affected me in the highest 
degree, but the dread I was in of sharing the same fate myself, and the many instances of the same 
kind which presented themselves all around, were too shocking to make me dwell a moment on this 
single subject. 
i had now a long narrow street to pass, with the houses on each side four or five stories high, all 
very old, the greater part already thrown down, or continually falling, and threatening the passengers 
with inevitable death at every step, numbers of whom lay killed before me, or, what I thought far 
more deplorable, so bruised and wounded, that they could not stir to help themselves. For my own 
part, as destruction appeared to me unavoidable, I only wished I might be made an end of at once, 
and not have my limbs broken, in which case I could expect nothing else but to be left upon the spot, 
lingering in misery, like these poor unhappy wretches, without receiving the least succour from any 
person. 
As self-preservation, however, is the first law of nature, these sad thoughts did not so far prevail 
as to make me totally despair. I proceeded on as fast as I conveniently could, though with the utmost 
caution; and having at length got clear of this horrid passage, 1 found myself safe and unhurt in the 
large open space beiore St. Paul s church, which had been thrown down a few minutes before, and 
buried a great pait of the congregation, that was generally pretty numerous, this being reckoned one 
of the most populous panshes in Tisbon. Here I stood some time, considering what I should do, and 
noi thinking myself safe in this situation, I came to the resolution of climbing over the ruins of the 
west end of the church, in older to get to the river side, that I might be removed, as far as possible, 
from the tottering houses, in case of a second shock. 
This, with some difficulty, I accomplished, and here I found a prodigious concourse of people, of 
both sexes, and of all ranks and conditions, among whom I observed some of the principal canons of 
the patriarchal chuich, in theii purple robes and rochets, as these all go in the habit of bishops; se- 
vera l P^ cs f s who had lun fiom the altars in their sacerdotal vestments in the midst of their celebrating 
